TOKYO (AP) – Tick-Tock-Tick.
The countdown clock for the postponed Olympic Games in Tokyo lasted another 200 days on Monday.
Tick-Tock-Tick.
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga also said on Monday he would consider declaring a state of emergency as new cases of coronavirus take up the number of records in Tokyo and neighboring prefectures. Japan has never had an exclusion for COVID-19, and is trying to juggle the economy and health risks.
Tick-Tock-Tick.
It is close to the deadline for the Tokyo Olympic organizers, the International Olympic Committee and various Japanese government agencies as they try to pick up the Games amid a pandemic.
Officials have promised to announce concrete plans early in the new year on how to get 15,000 Olympic and Paralympic athletes into Japan; about the safety of the Athletes Village, and hundreds of thousands of supporters, media, judges, officials, broadcasters and VIPs.
The new year is here.
Suga again promised to hold the Olympics, saying it would be proof that humans had conquered the coronavirus. ‘And he said that the approval of vaccines would be accelerated by a month, so that vaccinations could start in February instead of March.
Japan has attributed more than 3,400 deaths to COVID-19, modest by global standards for a country of 125 million, but worrying because new business is growing rapidly. A poll by national broadcaster NHK last month shows 63% want the Olympics to be postponed or canceled.
Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike and the governors of Saitama, Chiba and Kanagawa prefectures asked the national government on Saturday to declare a state of emergency after the capital saw a daily record of 1,333 new cases on New Year’s Eve. It yielded a jump of nearly 400 within a few days.
Yoshiro Mori, the chairman of the organizing committee and a former prime minister, ruled out canceling the games again a few days ago with the Nikkan Sports newspaper. He was asked when deciding to have local fans or fans from abroad.
“Sometimes from March to May,” he replies. “The final deadline for a decision is May, but it may come sooner.”
Any reduction in supporters will reach the budget of the organizing committee. Tokyo has budgeted $ 800 million for ticket sales, and any shortfall must be made up by government agencies, which pay most of the Olympic bills.
The official budget for the Tokyo Olympics was increased to $ 15.4 billion last month, an increase of $ 2.8 billion due to the delay. However, several government audits over the past few years suggest that the actual figure is about $ 25 billion.
A total of $ 6.7 billion is public money.
Mori indicated that the opening ceremony, scheduled for July 23, could be troublesome with thousands of athletes and officials gathering to parade the stadium. He also suggested that the ceremony could not be shortened as television broadcasters paid the lucrative time. He said some officials may be cut out of the parade.
Television covers a large part of Olympic scheduling, and the sale of broadcasting rights accounts for 73% of the IOC’s revenue. Another 18% comes from major sponsors such as Coca-Cola and Toyota.
The torch relay, which begins on March 25, will also be busy with 10,000 runners expected for nearly four months. Coca-Cola and Toyota are the main sponsors.
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